1. Technical Field
The present application relates to a method for identifying a vehicle using a predetermined location, and further relates to a radio beacon and an onboard unit for use with the method.
2. Background Art
Methods for identifying vehicles are required, for example, so as record, monitor, authorize and/or impose tolls (charge fees) for the usage of locations by vehicles. Such usages of locations can, for example, include the entering of areas to which access is limited or that are monitored, a fee-based stay at a particular location, for example a parking lot that is subject to a charge, or the use of traffic routes subject to tolls, such as highways or inner cities (city toll), and the like. According to known vehicle identification methods, license plate numbers (registration plates) are read by way of optical character recognition (OCR), or the vehicles are equipped with onboard units (OBUs) having a unique identification, which can be read out via a radio interface such as dedicated short range communication (DSRC), radio frequency identification (RFID), wireless local area network (WLAN), wireless access for vehicular environments (WAVE), or the like.
So as to create a clear association of a wirelessly read OBU identification with the location used by the vehicle, presently radio beacons, which are used for wireless reading, are mounted on special installations (“gantries”) at the location to be monitored and equipped with narrowly defined radio coverage ranges. Alternatively, satellite navigation-based onboard units are employed that transmit the self-located position data via a mobile communication network to a back office, which performs a map matching with the locations to be monitored. All of these known methods require not only special, complex installations, both in the vehicle and on the road, but also disclose the identity of the OBU (in the form of a wirelessly read OBU identification), even if no location usage requiring monitoring exists, which is objectionable for data protection reasons.